Andy Coulson pleads not guilty to phone hacking charges

Andy Coulson, the former media chief of British prime minister David Cameron and ex-editor of the News of the World tabloid, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to phone hacking.

Coulson resigned from his job as director of communications in Downing Street in 2011 as the scandal grew surrounding allegations of illegal phone hacking by journalists at the paper he edited between 2003 and 2007.

Coulson was in the dock at Southwark Crown Court for less than five minutes on Thursday.

He denied charges of unlawful interception of voicemail messages and to conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.

The charges involve allegedly making payments for information to public officials and hacking into phone messages to find material for news stories.

The hacking scandal forced the closure of the mass-selling paper, and a year-long public inquiry into journalistic practices sent shockwaves through the British establishment as it laid bare the close links between media, police and politicians.